CLEAVER OF SIN

'Who would have thought a Grade 3 Emovira would be that fast and strong?' Asher mused inwardly, his thoughts sharp and focused.

Normally, dispatching a Grade 3 Emovira posed little to no trouble for him. He could handle them with relative ease. Yet this particular monster had matched him, move for move, in terms of speed.

'Its ability must have something to do with speed,' he concluded, though he immediately dismissed the thought. Speculation would only waste precious seconds. Without further hesitation, Asher dove out of the room and into the hallway.

The hallway was already alive with chaos. Students struggled against their own opponents, weapons clashing, cries echoing, and blood spraying across the walls. Asher did not pause. He launched himself into the fray with ruthless purpose, Virelass cutting through the air like a streak of silver light. Anything that was not human fell to his blade, his strikes clean, efficient, and merciless.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Splat. Splat.

The heavy sounds of bodies crashing to the ground and the wet splatter of blood filled the hall. Yet Asher did not linger for thanks, nor did he wait for gratitude. His movements were singular in purpose, forward, ever forward, saving as many as his blade could reach.

Without missing a beat, he vaulted over the staircase railing, his form graceful and lithe, reminiscent of a predator from a higher realm. Like a feline lord of the hunt, he landed on the next floor with perfect balance.

It was there his thoughts briefly shifted. Finch. He had yet to see the boy among the survivors on the lower floors. A few minutes earlier, he had entered this very area alongside Finch and William, yet Finch was nowhere to be seen. Concern flickered through him, but he buried it swiftly. He would deal with what was before him.

A thunderous boom interrupted his thoughts. A body streaked violently through the air, crashing toward him like a ragdoll. Instinct roared within him, and Asher reacted in a heartbeat. His form blurred, arms snapping forward. He caught the student, a girl,his arms wrapping protectively around her frame, cushioning the brutal fall with ease.

His sharp purple eyes immediately snapped toward the direction she had come from. From the ruined room beyond, a figure stepped casually into the hallway.

A woman.

She carried twin daggers, their blades dripping crimson. Slowly, she raised one to her lips, tongue tracing the blood as her red eyes glowed with dangerous glee.

"Hooo…" she cooed, her smile twisting into a predator's grin. "Another blood type. I wonder what your blood tastes like."

Before Asher could respond, a monster lunged at her from the side, perhaps hoping to strike her by surprise. But her hand flickered once, too fast for most eyes to follow, and instantly, the creature was cleaved clean in half. Its bisected corpse slammed wetly against the hallway floor. She did not even grant it a glance, dismissing it as beneath her notice.

Asher lowered the girl gently to the ground, his gaze never straying from the woman. His thoughts narrowed to precision. 'She is at least Radiant Blazestar Life Rank,' he assessed, his eyes narrowing further. But even then, he could not accurately measure her true strength.

He knew well the gulf between ranks. The difference was not a mere matter of numbers. Between Life Ranks, the disparity was a chasm, like the gap between heaven and earth. But though he himself stood only at the Dust Blazestar Life Rank, Asher remained undaunted. He possessed affinities, abilities, and intelligence enough to bridge such divides.

Her abilities, he reasoned, were likely tied to blood.

"Ohhh…" she laughed lightly, eyes glinting with hunger. "A blood tank who doesn't tremble at my presence? Now I want to taste you even more."

Then she vanished.

Her speed was overwhelming, leaving a clear afterimage as she erased the distance between them in less than a blink. One dagger screamed toward Asher's ribs, the other toward the throat of the girl he had just saved.

Asher reacted instantly. He had sensed her movement the moment it began, but he had not anticipated her simultaneous attempt to finish the helpless student. In one motion, his hand clamped down upon her wrist, halting the dagger aimed for his ribs. But he could not stop the one targeting the girl's throat.

In the split second before impact, space itself bent to his will. Reality folded around him in obedience to his thought. Instantly, both he and the madwoman vanished from the hallway, ripped away from the doomed student's side.

They reappeared within Asher's own room.

The shift in location disoriented the madwoman for a fraction of a second, but that was all the opening Asher needed. With a thought, gravity obeyed his command, bending like a servant to his will. The woman was pinned, her movements forced down by invisible weight.

Asher shot forward. Virelass materialized in his grip, gleaming with deadly intent, as he thrust straight for her skull.

But even beneath the crushing weight of gravity, the woman's reflexes were terrifying. At the cost of her shoulder, she twisted aside. The rapier pierced through flesh, tearing through her shoulder with a sickening sound like fabric ripping under strain.

Her expression warped, but pain did not slow her. Asher's eyes narrowed. If even gravity could not bind her…

Astra surged through his veins, amplifying his command of gravity to even greater extremes. The room itself seemed to groan beneath the pressure. Yet the woman blurred once more, vanishing in defiance of the oppressive force.

Asher's expression remained impassive. Purple lightning erupted across his frame, coursing down his arms and surging into Virelass. His stance shifted, body aligning for a perfect strike. In the next instant, he swung toward the direction she had flickered to.

"Shit!" she cursed, eyes widening.

Her Astra pulsed outward, forming a barrier with explosive force. But Asher's lightning descended upon it like the wrath of a titan. The barrier shuddered, purple destruction cascading across its surface with cataclysmic force. Everything within the room convulsed under the impact, walls splintering, furniture reduced to ash, the very air alive with crackling arcs of lightning.

The woman grit her teeth, pain flashing across her eyes as the wound in her shoulder throbbed. But her Astra barrier held, for now. Her red gaze scanned the haze for her opponent.

Then her instincts screamed.

Her body dove aside, reflex alone dictating her escape. But it was already too late.

Asher was inside her barrier. He had teleported into it without her realizing, moving with lethal ease. His perception had read her dodge before she even began it, and he simply adjusted the angle of his strike.

A silver flash illuminated the chaos. Virelass sang its song.

The rapier cut clean through her neck, slicing like thunder splitting the night sky.

Her head soared into the air, eyes wide with disbelief, before crashing to the shattered ground. Her body followed, collapsing lifelessly as gravity reclaimed it. Blood erupted from the severed neck in a geyser, a crimson fountain staining the ruined room.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey everyone, I have an announcement to make. Next month, I would like us to reach a milestone by going strong and stepping into the Webnovel Golden ticket top ten ranking. If we manage to finish within the official top ten ranking, I will do a massive mass release. I'll be needing all of your support for this.